August 19, 2024

The Democratic National Convention held in 1968 was noteworthy due to the massive protests held outside the convention against the U.S. imperialist war in Vietnam.

Those antiwar demonstrators blamed Democratic President Lyndon Johnson and his vice president and presumed presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey for the war.

A brutal Chicago police riot attacked the demonstrators then, with swinging batons and tear gas causing massive injuries and arrests. The cops answered to Democratic Mayor Richard Daly, who had also used cops, National Guard and federal troops lethally against the Black community during the rebellion that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King that May.

Fast forward to Aug. 19, 2024, where once again a massive protest is scheduled for  the first day of the DNC. This time, thousands of protesters are expected to converge from around the country. Most will focus attention on the Democratic Party’s support for Israel’s 10-month-long genocidal war on the people of Gaza.

Israel’s racist ethnic cleansing, backed by U.S. military bombs and missiles, has resulted in the deaths and wounding of over 100,000 Palestinian unarmed civilians — including tens of thousands of children — and the displacement of over 2 million people.

President Joe Biden was so closely identified with Israeli policy that many people called him “Genocide Joe.” Even after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the presidential candidate, the Chicago protest was still on the agenda. Whoever the Democratic candidate facing Donald Trump is, the genocide in Gaza remains center stage.

Hatem Abudayyeh is chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, founded in 2006 to revitalize grass-roots organizing in Palestinian and Arab communities in the U.S. He said about the protest: “It’s still about ending the genocide. Our target is the Democratic Party and the leadership of the party and ‘Killer Kamala’ is one of them. We feel that their administration is responsible for this ongoing war and genocide.” (Washington Post, Aug. 16)

The Democratic Party’s political platform indicates no change from its long standing position reflecting “Israel’s right to defend itself” as being “ironclad,” and U.S. weapons will keep coming. The platform endorses the Biden administration’s alleged efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire deal in Gaza — but so far that part has been only talk.

The right to protest is under attack

There are already signs Chicago cops are violence-baiting the upcoming protests in order to vilify the demonstrations. They aim to justify any potential state repression. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling remarked, “We want to make sure that everyone in this city is protected, and everyone’s rights are protected. What we’re not going to allow are for people to converge upon this city and commit acts of violence or vandalism.”

The Coalition to March on the DNC legally challenged the limitations of the permit the city granted them in January. This earlier permit forced them to protest at Grant Park, almost four miles away from the convention site at the United Center.

Legal challenges from coalition groups forced the city to allow the Aug. 19 march to take place within a few blocks of the Democratic convention. Protesters will gather at Union Park — a half mile from the arena — and follow with a march to Medill Park. Their permitted route will take them up to the perimeter of the DNC security zone.

Abudayyeh and other coalition leaders say that the permitted route is too short and narrow for the tens of thousands of protesters expected. The protesters say that their message of “stop the genocide” has the right to be heard and seen by DNC delegates and the world without any threat of police repression.

Workers World wholeheartedly agrees with the protesters, who have the right to oppose the pro-imperialist stance of the Democrats as well as that of the Republicans. We support the demonstrators’ right to protest. And we support the demands to “Stop all U.S. military aid to apartheid Israel immediately!” and for the fascistic Israeli occupying force to leave Gaza and the West Bank permanently.